Judges 21:8-12
And they said, “What one is there of the tribes of Israel that did not come up to the Lord to Mizpah?” And behold, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh-gilead, to the assembly. For when the people were mustered, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there. So the congregation sent 12,000 of their bravest men there and commanded them, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword; also the women and the little ones. This is what you shall do: every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction.” And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
Tag: Compromising an Oath
God’s word warns us to not make an oath to God and fail to carry it out:
Deuteronomy 23:21-22
“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin.
Moses had just told them this truth years before. Yet, in the above story we see them not only violate their vow to God, but also play some psychological gymnastics to fit the vow into their real world. The story is simply: The tribe of Benjamin did something wicked to a member of the tribe of Ephraiam. The tribe of Ephraiam calls out all the other tribes to attack the tribe of Benjamin. In the process they make a vow to God to destroy anyone who DOES NOT come out to fight with them. After the fight and Benjamin is defeated and most of the men are killed, they make a further vow to not give their woman to the men of Benjamin. After the war is over the tribe of Ephraiam and the rest of Israel feel bad for Benjamin. They realize that if they killed most the males and most of the woman AND they refused to give them any of their woman for wives, the tribe of Benjamin would disappear off the face of the earth. Now they have two vows in conflict. There was a tribe of men (Jabesh-gilead) who did not fight and, therefore, they did not make the vow to not give their wives to Benjamin. This is a “technicality” since the vow meant to make sure Benjamin was not ever able to rebuild their tribe. But, they are now filled with compassion. Their rash vow put them in difficulty to keep their first vow and still honor their second vow. Their compromise was to kill the “men” of Jabesh-gilead and then allow Benjamin to have the virgins of the tribe. They compromised one vow to complete and fudge the other. In this case, neither vow was honored before God. We would supposed that God did not ask them to make either vow. But, God DOES expect us to keep the vows we do make. In this case the tribes were trying to fit their vows into their lives, instead of honoring what they said they were going to do. This compromise of the way we do things is a deeper issue of integrity to God and to our own words. If we make a commitment we ought to keep that commitment. This story shows the real heart issue in Israel during these days. The them of Judges is “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This is very much what they did in the above story. To make themselves feel good they compromised their vows. We do the same today.
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